Riding Out the Storm
by Jae Snow
Summary: Mistique had a secret child, a girl. Now abandoned, she must fight the mutant hating world and survive the X-Men.


Riding Out the Storm  
  
"Mother, don't go." Raven Darkholme paused at the doorway. She closed her eyes in pain and her hand clenched the door frame. She took a deep breath and raised her head. Raven never looked back as she shouldered her pack and left her daughter. The girl, with ebony hair and equally dark eyes ran after her mother. She slowed her pace as she watched the red-haired, blue-skinned mutant walk down the stairs. Genevieve rested her arms on the banister of the rundown apartment's stairs. The girl was too well trained to cry. Instead she laid her head on her arms. "Don't go, mother. Don't go," she whispered, anguished and betrayed.   
  
Raven, once out side the dingy building, let her shoulders sag and her heart accept the pain and walked to her car. The new morning was just beginning to come. She glanced up at the sky. She knew if she stayed a little later, she could have watched the sunrise with Genevieve, her heart. She had done that every morning she was around. Her hands clenched the door handle as she got in. Raven knew this had to be done. The old Toyota was as beaten up as the mutant felt. Raven "Mystique" Darkholme drove steadily through the morning. She stopped only to get gas once. New York was hours behind her. So was Genevieve.   
  
Hunger and the need for a restroom hit her around two in the afternoon. The only place to stop on the highway was a super market-gas station combination called "Mark's Gas and Goods". She checked her gas. It couldn't hurt to fill it up, she decided.   
  
The mutant had hours ago taken the shape of a twenty year old attractive blond. Now she morphed into an eighteen year old Hispanic looking girl. Genevieve always said she looked better as a redhead, not a brunette. A wave of pain engulfed Raven. She resisted the urge to change her hair color. Stepping out of the car, she got a firm grasp of herself and entered the gas station.   
  
The inside was considerably larger than what she expected. It was just like a Wal-Mart. Raven spent a few minutes looking around before her needs made them selves known. She ate a large lunch at little fast food joint in the store, knowing that she wouldn't be stopping again for while. On her way out, she saw a trinket that caught her eye. A miniature model of cat was sitting on shelf next to other animals. The cat had dark and light stripes. It was curled up asleep in a little brown packing box. Raven picked it up, her fingers running over the fine details of the animal. A sad, soft smile formed on her face. Genevieve had always loved cats. When ever Raven had come home, a new cat occupied the apartment. Raven tried time and time again to get rid of them, to punish Genevieve for bringing them back into the house. Fleas and disease, Raven tried to explain, would hurt her. Her daughter, her heart, had said she was lonely and someone had to protect them. Someone had to love them. Raven never tried to stop her after that. Raven took the cat to the check out counter. She placed the figurine on the counter. The elderly woman manning the counter looked over Raven. She had to remind herself that she looked like an eighteen year old child. The patted Raven's hand as she handed over a twenty to pay for the fourteen dollar trinket.   
  
"Where are you running from, love?" The woman asked sympathetically. "You look like you're running like hell from something terrible." Raven never missed a beat as she expertly wove a tragic tale.   
  
"I just gave birth to my daughter and put her up for adoption. I can't raise a child." She ran a hand over her stomach, which she subtly increased, for effect. The mutant let a few tears fill her eyes. "I just can't." She expected the woman to be horrified by a girl giving birth and then sending it away. Instead the woman grasped the hands of Raven.   
  
"God bless, child. Not many young girls know when they can't properly raise a young one. Love, you take care of yourself. That is all you need to do now." The woman, her name tag read Mina, squeezed her hands. "Love, my daughter did the same that good for nothing man of hers left her. She was sixteen. Sixteen! But she knew. She just knew someone would take her baby. I know the same will happen to yours. God bless, and good luck with your life." Raven pulled her hands free and said thank you and goodbye.   
  
Back in her car, she pulled the cat out the packaging box the other woman had put it in. The cat lay in her hands, a small, fragile weight. Raven put the cat back into the white packaging box. She placed it in her backpack lying on the passenger seat next to her. Raven drove off speeding down the high once again. The touching incident with the elderly woman, a mere blip in her life, was already forgotten. Hours later, she reached into her pack to grab something to eat. Her fingers brushed the box with the ceramic cat. She pulled over off the highway, into a rest area. She told her self it was for the food she couldn't find. Once parked, she opened the box. The cat, in her palm, she felt agony hit her. Closing her eyes, she morphed into her true self. She laid her head against the headrest. Her eyes closed against the pain. Raven covered her face with her hands. She then permitted herself to do something that she had never let herself do before. She cried. Sobs wracked her body. Her shoulders slumped forward and she curled forward. The absolute anguish she was in was like nothing she had ever experienced. It was horrid for Kurt, Rogue and even Graydon. But this… This was… too much for her. 


End file.
